Popa Paradise Beach Resort — Hotel in Punta Laurel

My trip was like coming home to your own tropical island while wondering if I'd stumbled upon a Robinson Crusoe movie set. This 17-room resort off the northeast coast of Panama near Boca del Toro (Bocas) is in a beautiful beachside setting offering all the basics of an all-inclusive property including spectacular sunrises. TIP: Flights to Bocas (BOC) by a commuter airline depart from the local downtown Panama City airport (Code PAC). The trip is about an hour but may cancel or be combined with another flight either direction so plan accordingly. After a 30-minute boat ride from Bocas, owners Vince and Rosie welcomed me to their neat as a pin property for adult singles and couples in a clothing optional setting. In the dining and club house areas, guests are expected to wear a cover up or casual clothes. You can choose to chill out on the beach or in the large freshwater pool. I met other guests quickly as I entered the pool and enjoyed trading stories and toasting our luck discovering our own version of paradise. I enjoyed the totally relaxed atmosphere where it's easy to meet and enjoy the staff most of whom are local native citizens. Features and activities include water sports, snorkeling, fishing, hiking the paved paths in a jungle setting as well as touring with optional excursions such as visiting an indigenous native village or visiting a cacao farm dedicated to eco-tourism which I thoroughly enjoyed. The resort's meal plan is all inclusive with varied cuisine, while not fancy, offers guests a nice variety of local dishes and menu items with plenty of fish and seafood and even lobster coupled with home grown veggies, fresh fruit and creative desserts. I eat and enjoy just about everything and welcomed the chance to try new dishes and fruit I'd never tasted. The fish you catch in the morning can be enjoyed as your nighttime meal. The meal plan also includes local beer, imported wine and a good variety of spirits of the most popular brands and tastes. Each room or suite casita includes air conditioning, private bathroom, spacious bedding and a large screen television (which I never used) for viewing complimentary DVD movies from the resort's assortment in the club house. The beachside setting offers beach combing, sunning on one of the loungers or snorkeling. SCUBA diving can be arranged with dive operators in Bocas. There's so much to do, plan some downtime to relax and remember why you're there...to relax and get away from the everyday. Spoiled rotten? You bet! I'll be back and next time...

We have been searching for our new nakation home since the destruction of Club Orient and have found it. It's a bit more involved to get to, but if you embrace the adventure it's actually pretty easy. ||We flew into Panama City from Houston, an easy flight on United. We arrived too late to catch a connection to Bocas so elected to stay two nights in Casco Viejo in a beautiful historic hotel. That turned out to be a blast. Great food, sights, shopping. Then we took the morning flight to Bocas on Air Panama, an easy 1 hr trip. Ernesto, the boat captain was at the airport to greet us and quickly loaded our bags and off we went to the docks. For a little guy he is amazingly strong! Our panga was awaiting us, we quickly loaded up and off we went. Beautiful blue water, islands, mountains in the distance, what a visual treat. ||We arrived at Popa Paradise in about 35 minutes and were escorted up the path, admiring the manicured grounds, and were greeted by Vince and Rosie with fresh cut coconuts for refreshment. They gave us a quick tour then took us to our ocean front casita. Very nice, all the comforts of home including AC, coffee maker, fridge, comfortable bed, mosquito nets, loungers. ||We unpacked and then it was time to explore. The beach is beautiful. Warm clear water, a little island to explore, paths all over the place, bird watching tower, great pool the perfect temperature, swim up bar, nice loungers. The bartenders Tom and Eduardo and Roger are friendly indigenous locals, very good at their job. They managed to get us in a party mood very quickly! We quickly settled into the rhythm of the place.||Cleaned up for dinner, met everyone at the common area, then sat down for a gourmet dinner in the middle of the jungle. How Vince and Rosie do this is beyond comprehension. They bring sophistication to a remote place and deliver delicious food and great service. ||We made an early night of it after our travels and slept wonderfully listening to the waves on the beach. ||The next 7 days and nights were a repeat. Every meal was excellent, the tours were well organized and very fun. All of the staff are friendly as can be. The property is big enough that there is much exploring to be done. ||To sum up, Vince and Rosie are the consummate hosts. They are sharing their magical place at a very reasonable price and we will be going back every year. Don't let the logistics of getting there scare you, it really isn't...

This place is a completely off the grid mediocre at best resort. The rooms have no wifi. No phones. Very old outdated uncomfortable furniture. The mattresses were like cement. However, they did change them out to something not quite as hard when we complained. The rooms have not been renovated since the opened more than 15 years ago and it shows. The amenities are very poor quality. The food was often poor, and they lack basic staples. Be ready to told that they are out and/or that you can’t have anymore. There is only a selection of food for breakfast. Lunch and dinner is a set menu usually with no options. The staff has a difficult time making anything to order and if you ask them for anything beyond what you were served, they look afraid to go back to the kitchen and ask. When they do bring something extra back, it’s often wrong. No French fries (available only at one meal and they were cold), ice cream (available only at two meals), cream for the coffee (only milk), burgers (a request for a burger resulted in a ground beef wrap), tortilla chips and salsa (except bags of Doritos), etc. At one dinner, steak and tuna steak was served. The steaks can without anyone asking what temperature we wanted. They were also poorly seasoned. They did ask about the tuna temperature. The alcohol is also low end and there isn’t even the ability to pay extra for top shelf liquor, e.g. the only vodka is Smirnoff and all the wines are less than $10 a bottle. The staff is the indigenous locals that have difficulty communicating with you even in Spanish let alone English. This is not the place to eat well or even sleep well. The sheets are low quality bedding. There are not sufficient blackout drapes to block out the sun and they were the wrong length. So if you want to sleep in, you will not be able to block out the sun. There is no cable in the room, just a DVD player but we did not see where the DVDs were until our last day. We were slaughtered by the mosquitoes or the noseeums, not sure which.. This is a mom and pop resort that bills you like the high end brands but is too cheap to put out services or quality like the high end brands. The pool was nice. The beach was nice. The rooms were clean. The bugs are all over and it’s hard to keep them out of...